20 June 1928, Los Angeles, California, USA, d. 29 June 1964, Berlin, Germany. A fluent performer on several reed instruments, Dolphy began to play clarinet while still at school. On the west coast of America in the second half of the 40s he worked with Roy Porters band, before spending a couple of years in the US army. After his discharge, he played with several leadin
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30 June 1931, Chicago, Illinois, USA, d. 20 April 2007, Jersey City, New Jersey, USA. Port Au Prince, Haiti, is usually given as Hills birthplace, but he actually hailed from Chicago. He studied composition privately with Paul Hindemith and Bill Russo, and played accordion and tap-danced on the streets where Earl Fatha Hines heard him. In his teens he was i
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24 May 1937, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA. Shepp was raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. While studying dramatic literature at college he began playing on various instruments including the alto saxophone. His first professional engagement was on clarinet and he later played tenor saxophone with R&B bands. Settling in New York he tried to find work as an actor but was
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31 October 1930, Denison, Texas, USA, d. 31 August 1970, New York City, New York, USA. As a child, Ervin played trombone but switched to tenor saxophone in the early 50s during his military service. (He led his own small group when he was stationed on Okinawa.) After returning to civilian life, Ervin studied at Berklee College Of Music under Joe Viola, then worked with Ernie
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William Evans, 9 October 1920, Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA. Raised in Detroit, Michigan, Lateef began playing tenor saxophone in his late teens. In New York in the mid-40s he played in bands led by Lucky Millinder, Roy Eldridge and other leading jazz musicians of the swing era, but later in the decade, in Chicago, he played with Dizzy Gillespie. Thereafter, his work was cons
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John Lenwood McLean, 17 May 1932, New York City, New York, USA, d. 31 March 2006, Hartford, Connecticut, USA (some sources cite 1931 as his year of birth). Coming as he did from a musical background (McLeans father played guitar with the Tiny Bradshaw band), Jackie was encouraged by family friends who included Bud Powell. It was through Powell that alto saxophonist McL
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13 July 1936, Cleveland, Ohio, USA, d. 25 November 1970, New York City, New York, USA. In common with many of the radical figures of the 60s avant garde, tenor and alto saxophonist Ayler paid his dues in R&B bands. He started his musical education on alto, and played in the church attended by his family. At the age of 10 he began studying at the local academy of music, c
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John Byard, 15 June 1922, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA, d. 11 February 1999, New York City, New York, USA. A gifted multi-instrumentalist, Byard learned trumpet and piano as a child and later took up guitar, drums, trombone and tenor saxophone. In 1949 he played piano in Earl Bostics R&B band, and followed that with a spell as a solo pianist and then joined Herb P
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2 April 1938, Memphis, Tennessee, USA, d. 5 October 1961, New York City, New York, USA. One of the most promising of all trumpeters in the second bebop wave of the 50s, Booker Little was equipped with a superb technique, crystal clarity of intonation and rhythmic originality. His imagination extended beyond the strict harmonic disciplines of bop however, and hinted at the vi
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Frederick Dewayne Hubbard, 7 April 1938, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. Hubbard began playing trumpet as a child, and in his teens worked locally with Wes Montgomery and Monk Montgomery. When he was 20 he moved to New York, immediately falling in with the best of contemporary jazzmen. Amongst the musicians with whom he worked in the late 50s were Eric Dolphy (his room-mate for
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9 March 1930, Fort Worth, Texas, USA. The evolution of any art form is a complex process and it is always an over-simplification to attribute a development to a single person. If there is anyone apart from Louis Armstrong for whom that claim could be made, however, Ornette Coleman would be a tenable candidate. Charlie Parker and John Coltrane were great forces for progress,
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15 March 1929, New York City, New York, USA. A towering figure in post-war avant garde jazz, Taylor has been hailed as the greatest piano virtuoso of the twentieth century because of the phenomenal power, speed and intensity of his playing. We in black music think of the piano as a percussive instrument,  he told writer John Litweiler, we beat the keyboard,
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Farrell Saunders, 13 October 1940, Little Rock, Arkansas, USA. By the time he left high school Sanders was proficient on several instruments, but eventually chose the tenor saxophone. After working in R&B bands he settled in New York in the early 60s where he became a frequent musical associate of Don Cherry, Albert Ayler and others active in the free jazz mo
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25 September 1930, El Reno, Oklahoma, USA. Alto, soprano and tenor saxophone, flute and piano player and composer. After extensive studies, Rivers began playing in and around Boston, Massachusetts, in the late 40s. (His first professional engagement had been with Jimmy Witherspoon during his military service.) During the next few years he played mostly in the Boston area wit
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Maxwell Lenard Roach, 10 January 1924, New Land, North Carolina, USA, d. 16 August 2007, New York City, New Yok, USA. One of the most technically gifted musicians in the history of jazz, Roach was a major figure in the development of the music and his consistently high standard of performance never faltered.Learning to play drums in his pre-teenage ye
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